Isla Magdalena
Contrasts in shape and color framed this beautiful day spent exploring the coastline of Isla Magdalena. After riding our Zodiacs to shore across a wild deep blue, windy and whitecap studded sea, we landed and began trekking across sculpted sand dunes of tone on tone tans and hard curved shapes shifting in slow motion to the southeast. The abundance of the hardy desert plants surprised and delighted us with bright and intricate flowers presented to our eyes, noses and cameras. On the Pacific side, the twelve-mile expanse of undeveloped beach called out for beachcombing with sand dollars, seashells, and interesting bones scattered everywhere.
Afternoon brought narrow mangrove lined channels and excellent birding—reddish and snowy egrets, the elusive green heron, a plethora of shorebirds, and many osprey with their sweet plaintive calls. A coyote skulked along the muddy banks. Just after passing through Devil’s Bend, we had our first glimpse of a California gray whale, those amazing long distance migratory cetaceans that we have traveled to this remote place to visit. Moms and their two- and three-week-old calves majestically cruised the lagoon as we wound our way northward. It’s remarkable to find these huge whales swimming with their young in this narrow and shallow channel and to contemplate what turns of the evolutionary trail could have brought them here.
Late in the day, we made a brief stop in Pto. Adolfo Lopez Mateo, a fishing town turned into a whale watching fiesta for the ten weeks of every year that these revered animals visit the Canal de Soledad.
